Do Virtuous Non-Christians Go To Hell?

Do virtuous non-Christians go to hell?
Written by Peter Smith

“How could Gandhi be in hell?”

I wish I had a nickel for everyone who asked that question in explaining why they have a hard time believing in the traditional Christian concept of hell.

Mahatma Gandhi seems to be the stand-in for the ultimate example of a virtuous person who, though influenced by Jesus, never embraced him as a savior.

But the conflict predates Gandhi. Even the poet Dante, who put his vivid literary imagination to work in depicting the tortures of the damned in his “Inferno,” placed noble pagans in the cushiest part of hell he could imagine. (If there had been air conditioning in the Middle Ages, he would have had it installed for them.)

These matters come to mind in the wake of the Southern Baptist Convention’s June passage of a resolution, “On the Reality of Hell.”

It follows the recent publication of the controversial book, “Love Wins,” by author and pastor Rob Bell. He asks whether the unsaved are damned to never-ending hell.

“Gandhi’s in hell? He is? And someone knows this for sure?” he asks in a promotional video.

In the book, Bell stops short of embracing a form of universalism, in which everyone gets saved. But he contends that there are Scriptures and Christian theological traditions affirming such a view and that it’s OK to hold them in tension with others affirming unending punishment.

“We don’t need to resolve (such tensions) … because we can’t, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires,” he writes. But the overall gist is that a loving God offers all kinds of second chances to people in the Bible.

The Baptist resolution, passed at the convention’s annual meeting in Phoenix, affirms “eternal, conscious punishment of the unregenerate in Hell.”

It continues:

“Orthodox Christians have affirmed consistently and resoundingly the reality of a literal Hell” and that “the Bible clearly teaches that God will judge the lost at the end of the age.”

It resolves that, “out of our love for Christ and His glory, and our love for lost people and our deep desire that they not suffer eternally in Hell, we implore Southern Baptists to proclaim faithfully the depth and gravity of sin against a holy God, the reality of Hell, and the salvation of sinners by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone….”

Bell is far from the only one, even within evangelical circles, to question an eternal hell for all non-Christians.

One survey found that one in five evangelicals believes people other than followers of Jesus Christ can be saved — a minority, sure, but significant given that evangelicalism is practically defined by a belief in salvation only through faith in Jesus.

Large majorities of other Protestants and Catholics are open to a heaven including followers of other religions, according to the poll, known as the U.S. Congregational Life Survey.

Yet another survey, by the Southern Baptist-affiliated LifeWay Research, found that less than half of Protestants (of all types) who attend church regularly are sure of a heaven for Christians only.

A common explanation for all this uncertainty is that, in modern society, religious diversity cuts right through families and friendships, and even dedicated Christians find it hard to see their personal Gandhis in hell.

“American Grace,” a massive summary of religious research published recently by scholars Robert Putnam and David Campbell, describes this as the “Aunt Susan” and “My Pal Al” syndrome — relatives and friends of different faiths whose saintly behavior they admire. People can’t imagine heaven without them.

Yet the Southern Baptist resolution seeks to channel that sentiment into evangelism, saying the prospect of people being damned “grieves us deeply,” so Christians must proclaim Jesus as the only path to “a holy God whose judgments are altogether righteous.”

The Baptist resolution drew a response by Roy Fuller, who teaches religion at the University of Louisville and other area schools, in an essay on his Facebook page.

Fuller noted that a belief in a literal hell requires believing in the eternal punishment of billions, even if they never heard the gospel message, including (borrowing Bell’s phrase) those left unreached “because the missionary had a flat tire that day.”

How can such beliefs be reconciled with scriptures affirming “God’s desire that all be saved,” Fuller asks.

“Hell does exist and we make it, right here,” he concludes. “We can all agree that humans are broken, sinful creatures who are capable of limitless amounts of violence directed against their fellow human beings. … Seemingly the worst fate one might imagine is to be separated from God for eternity, but those choices begin now, as do the consequences. The good news … is that we can address this separation here and now. How? By sharing the story of God’s love for humanity, through word and deed.”

There are different degrees of responses to this question. One is exclusivism —only followers of one particular religion are saved. That’s the Southern Baptist position. Another is universalism — everyone goes to heaven. Still another is pluralism, which says there is more than one path to heaven, but not necessarily that everyone will follow one. There are other variants as well.

All this discussion may or may not resolve the Gandhi question.

But it also brings up the flipside to that question. Assuming, for the sake of discussion, that if everyone is destined for heaven, that would mean that Adolf Hitler, Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and Osama bin Laden are going there, too.

And how could that be heaven?

Peter Smith is the religion writer for The Courier-Journal. This column is adapted from his Faith & Works blog at faith.courier-journal.com. He can be reached at (502) 582-4469.